How Big How Blue How Beautiful
by DeliriousMess
Summary: A proposed Mermaid!AU that I wrote two long posts for. Sort of Disney "The Little Mermaid" inspired, but with a more primal people-vibe, if that makes sense.
1. Chapter 1

Prompt: Jen's a naturally curious mermaid who ends up stuck in a fishing net and Duke rescues her

Jennifer had been told from the time she could swim on her own in The Expanse to avoid the large, dark shadows that would move across the surface of their world.

She had often tried to discern from her mother what was so menacing about the shadows, as many of her kind often did before they left for their first swims alone. Surely someone knew what they were, why seemed to follow the paths of the other fish, why there were so many of them towards the shore.

Her mother had only ever shaken her head at her, using her father's weapons to demonstrate what the shadows were allegedly capable of. It wasn't until after Jennifer had gone closer to shore, to see for herself, that she had first wondered if her mother was just being overly dramatic to protect her.

After all, the creatures that seemed to often inhabit the things that created the shadows seemed so… _different_. That was the only word that could describe them. And Jennifer had always been enamored by things that were different.

She began to watch the creatures on the shore quite frequently, and had even began to follow underneath some of the shadows. It was by doing this that she learned that some shadows merely traveled, and some dropped dangerous things to ensnare things like her. She had thought she had learned how to tell the difference between the two, but as the net cut into her side, she knew that she had been foolish.

She twisted in the net that had trapped her fruitlessly. She couldn't reach her knife around her waist, and the more she moved, the more trapped she became.

It looked like _different_ was going to be her end.

She felt that she was being pulled towards the surface before she noticed how the world was getting brighter and tried to prepare herself for the shock that breaching would cause.

 _I will fight_. She thought to herself, _Whatever they try to do to me, they will not take me without a fight._

As her luck–which she had thought had long deserted her–would have it, she wouldn't have to put up that much of a fight at all.

She tried to keep her eyes open, to see how many of the creatures would be around her, but the world was so bright and _loud_ that she struggled to focus on anything.

"Jesus, there's a woman in there!" one of the fisherman yelled once he saw her. There was something in his voice that made her not only _want_ to focus on him, but _able_ to. He was tall for the creatures, and his hair was long for males of his kind, but even by her people's standards, he was quite attractive. She had learned to understand their language slowly, by spending more and more time by the shoreline and listening carefully-their language was so strange compared to hers. It was so brash, so loud, there was no subtlety, no connection-it had seemed like just noise to her at the time, until she finally learned enough to understand it, and to find the beauty in it.

"Well don't just stand there, Crocker; cut 'er loose!" another, far more grating, voice yelled from further away.

 _Crocker_ , she thought, _I will remember that name._

The other man moved to lower the net until she was on the deck of the ship, once she was down, he knelt beside her and wrapped his shirt around her shoulders. She kept her eyes focused on him–her eyes slowly trying to adjust, though she was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe–as he began to cut through the net until she was free. This was not what she had expected; she had been prepared for a fight, not this strange demonstration of...kindness? He was careful as he cut along her upper torso, in particular to keep his gaze _only_ on where his hands were, and spoke quietly to her; "It's alright, darlin', just keep watching me–Jesus, how long were you _down_ there?"

She watched him curiously as he worked, a bit confused by how he refused to look in her eyes, until he reached her waist and began to see her tail. Finally, he looked back to her face, confusion and wonder in his eyes.

Her breath was coming in quickening gasps as she looked at him, trying to let him see the challenge in her eyes, trying to let him know that his ploy of kindness had not softened her, but it was getting harder and harder to breathe, making it harder and harder to stay focused on him. He must've understood _something_ in her gaze because he made quick work of cutting her the rest of the way free.

"I want to help you." He said quietly to her, "I don't know if you understand me, but I want to help you."

She kept staring at him, unsure of what to do to show him that she understood him. She had never tried to mimic the language she had heard them use, and though this maybe her last day alive, this didn't feel like the best time to start trying it. She tried to remember what she had witnessed others of his kind do to demonstrate understanding or even gratitude but she only remembered one thing. She grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him down to her until her lips were pressed to his.

He pulled back after a moment, still confused, before he hooked one arm around her shoulders and another under her tail, "That'll have to do."

He carried her to the edge of the ship as more of the crew came to investigate the woman found in the net, and they were calling their questions out to him.

"Sorry about this, Ariel, stay safe out here," He said to her before more or less throwing her back into the water.

As it turns out, _different_ just saved her life.


	2. Chapter 2

Prompt: Since Duke saved Jennifer's life, she returns the favor when he falls overboard during a bad storm

Jennifer knew she should've been swimming back towards her pod, her family. She also knew that going this far into The Expanse alone was a sure way to get herself killed—her previous experience set aside.

But, Currents help her, the man on the boat _interested_ her. "Crocker." She still remembered. There was something about him…it was in the eyes. What she remembered seeing of them, at least. They reminded her of the Dark Below that seemed to threaten to swallow her up when she would try to see how far she could dive before the Weight would become too great for her to stand.

And she found herself thinking they were a kind of Dark she wanted to get lost in.

So she stayed close to the shadow of the boat she'd been tossed over the edge of, careful to avoid the dangerous parts. She was certain that as far as her mother would be concerned, _all_ the parts were dangerous parts. But she'd been following it for a couple of days now, managing to grab a couple of fish before the nets disappeared, and she knew it would be more dangerous to try to go back alone _without_ the shadow. Curse her and her stubbornness; all she wanted was to see him again, and now she was _miles_ away from home, from her kind, and she wasn't sure when she was going to get back and for what? The _possibility_ of seeing him while he walked on shore?

Oh Currents what was _happening_ to her?

It was night now, they were a little less than a day's swim from shore, and the boat had stopped, so she saw no harm in getting out from under it and rolling over so she could see the lights up in the Dark Above. But there was something… _wrong_ with the currents around her, like there was a change coming. She looked up at the Dark Above, and realized that even that was wrong. It looked like it did right before a—

Before she could finish the thought, the waves became violent, there was a loud crashing sound and bright light.

"Storm!" one of the sailors yelled as the ship began to rock. Jennifer chose to dive a bit to stay clear of the dangerous parts of boat as it was tossed by the waves . She could just barely make out the various voices of the other sailors on the ship, shouting commands loudly at each other over the storm, which had only grown more violent. She kept her eyes on the Surface, wondering what would happen. Storms, while often unpleasant, were markedly less so the further you dove; Jennifer just didn't want to be any farther from the ship than she had to be. Storms also had a tendency to divide, and that was the last thing she needed this far from her pod.

Various crates and things she couldn't even begin to understand or give names to had started to fall into her world and she knew she probably shouldn't, but she began to grab a few things to look at them. It was another moment of _different_ fascinating her—even if it was during a potentially dangerous storm.

Suddenly there was a crash of something large falling through the Surface, and she looked to see what new thing could've fallen _now_ –why hadn't these creatures thought to _secure_ any of this stuff if it was so important?—when she realized it wasn't a _what_ so much as a _who_.

She swam quickly over to him to get a clearer look at him when she discovered that it was _him_ —the one who'd cut her loose. She looked him over, looking for any sign that he was bleeding; she hadn't seen anything larger than the occasional dolphin pod as they'd traveled, but she knew enough to know that just because _you_ couldn't see something, didn't mean _it_ couldn't see you.

Thankfully, he wasn't bleeding, but he was strangely still for a creature of his kind that'd just fallen into the water—wasn't there usually a lot more flailing?—his eyes were closed as she reached to touch his face and he was—oh no he was _sinking_.

She wrapped her arms around his middle and pumped her tail until they had breached enough for him to start breathing—should he ever decide to.

 _Can't your kind control that?_ she thought as she headed towards the shore desperately, rain pelting them unforgivingly, _Please_ please _start breathing soon—I haven't even heard your_ name _yet-your other name, come back please._

His head fell back against her shoulder as the shoreline began to come into view-the currents change made getting to the shore faster, but definitely not easier. The storm had begun to lessen as she found a small, rocked in tide pool. It was shallow enough for him to mostly be out of the water, but deep enough for her to be able to breathe and stay with him.

She set him so that his back was against one of the rocks surrounding the pool, and carefully leaned his head against it. She traced his face for a moment, studying him.

 _Please wake up_ , she thought as she gently rolled his head back towards her, _I wasn't supposed to pay you back for saving my life so soon._

At that moment, he coughed up some water, jerking out of her hands, and his eyes snapped open, looking around wildly. She pulled back from him, giving him room to readjust and breathe, and watched him.

He ran his hands through his hair to get it out of his face as he climbed to his feet shakily, and finally calmed down enough to actually register the things around him. In particular, that he wasn't alone.

He looked down at her and seemed to put the pieces of what happened together as she watched him back. She wasn't sure what to do as he stared at her for a moment.

"You saved me." he said quietly to her.

She wanted to something to communicate that she there to help him, that she was a friend. She remembered another expression that she'd seen creatures like him do to placate others. She moved the corners of her mouth upwards and showed her teeth, trying to smile at him.

He crouched down to her level and she tried to straighten herself and sit up slightly so that she could be on his eye level. She wanted to show him that she trusted him, and the way her kind did that was by showing him her underbelly. It was the weakest part they had, the surest way to kill her kind, and she was trusting him with it. Though she couldn't be sure he completely understood what the gesture meant, but he understood it enough.

He returned the smile she was trying to give him and reached a hand out to her. She moved closer to him slightly, wondering what he was going to do, only to have him touch her face gently.

They looked at each other for a moment before he kissed her–just as she'd done only a few days before after he'd saved her–and said, "Thank you."

She studied his face for a moment, trying to memorize it, when she heard others of his kind calling out from further up shore. They must've noticed the rattled man standing in the tide pool and figured something was wrong. He heard them too, and turned to call back to them. She took the opportunity to turn back towards deeper water. She was gone by the time he looked back for her.


End file.
